Hello gang
Just a little testamony after finishing a feature with the RED.Was the first in Montreal for a long term project . It has been used a lot on commercials music videos and short features.I knew the camera but working in very different conditions for 24 days ,you discover little tricks and hints.This camera has a soul,believe me.
Well we made it without any major issues.Had only 2 takes on 1 CF card with an internal recording error ,but we saw it so no biggie there. Had a few crashes when i tried to do a playback on the RED drive ,but if I unplugged the viewfinder, it would work fine. Sometimes the camera just shut down and rebooted on it s own ,so we just figured she burped or sneezed and it shook her too much...
To eliminate downloading on set since we were under staff because of budget restreints,we had 20 CF cards (8gig)and the Red drive so we could send the cards and drive to the post house and could receive them in the morning to start over.Had a couple of cards in back up but we still had to do some downloading on set to make sure we had enough to start the next day.We had to shoot 6 pages a day sometimes...
The REd batteries did the job in cold weather and rain (2 degrees celcius) even with a zoom control being used the whole time. Roughly 1.5 to 2 hours of runnin.Had 5 batteries...
The only thing that surfaced as a possible issue was focus in low light situations .(for projecting to the big screen ) Here is an example : Slow Dolly-in to a medium side shot of 2 people static ,from 18 to 12 feet distance with a 40mm Ultraprimme T 1.9. You would think nothin biggie there,well I had doubts as everybody.We stuck our nose on the screen with full zoom in on the RED display and 52 inch monitor .Well it was not sharp .They were at 11'3 ,I was at 12 feet on the lens .
Anyways ,gotta wait for the big screen projection.It s been stressful like in the anamorphic days,but without the weight...Pulling focus on this technology has it s own rules.The rhythm is different especially on fast shots were actors or objects are moving straight in at a fast pace. In this effect ,there are also certain limits when using a zoom with a long barrel run ,like the Angenieux Optimo 24-290mm .Had a very hard time I must confess,and I can assure you this wasn t my first barbecue.
When it comes out I ll give ya a heads up so we can all see what can be done with this little beast .
PEace
Eagle eye
Originally Posted by Devine
